I’ve come to realize that nothing in the world is sacred or
off-limits. Not even a child who has no say-so in her own grooming but
relies on adults to tend to her tendrils. On Monday, photos popped up
online showing Jay Z, Beyoncé and their daughter, Blue Ivy, returning to
New York City after a recent trip to the Hamptons.

In the photos, Jay Z is holding Blue Ivy, and it looked as though
everyone was suffering from plane exhaustion. Or even vacation
exhaustion. Hell, when was the last time any of you had a chance to take
a private jet to the Hamptons? But never mind any of that. What was
most important to the people of Internet land was the fact that Blue
Ivy’s hair wasn’t “done” to their liking.

The life and times of Blue Ivy’s hair has been fodder, well, since
she’s had hair. People have criticized the Carters for not keeping Blue
Ivy’s hair “done” and for letting it look unkempt. But what business is
it of ours as to what Beyoncé and Jay Z choose to do with their
daughter’s hair?

Blue Ivy is 2 years old, and making a fashion statement is probably
the furthest thing from her parents’ minds when it comes to their
daughter’s hair. Who’s to say that they weren’t in the middle of
removing braids from their child’s hair before the flight ended? Who’s
also to say that maybe Blue Ivy was messing in her own hair? Also,
maybe, just maybe, Blue Ivy’s hair is just the way her parents want it
to be.

As a woman who’s had natural hair since the early ’90s, before the
millions of natural-hair products and YouTube tutorials were mainstream,
I had a hair regimen that was far from complicated. Wash and go. Apply
some moisturizer and keep it moving. There was even a time when I was
responsible for my cousin’s hair, when she was the same age as Blue Ivy,
and the most I could manage with a 2-year-old was some single-strand
twists. I’m not even going to mention the fact that those twists almost
turned into locks, several times. Imagine trying to keep a hyper child
in a seat for more than an hour? Not happening.

Honestly, I think some black people (the operative word is “some”)
have an issue that goes a lot deeper than Blue Ivy’s roots. It’s their
own roots they have an issue with. Especially if those roots aren’t as
silky as those of Kanye West’s daughter, North West.

Over the last day, I’ve read plenty of comments referring to Blue
Ivy’s hair as nappy. And it wasn’t in the connotation of “happy to be
nappy.” Nappy was being looked at as something negative. Not everyone
has 2abcdefgigh-textured hair, or whatever number system is used
nowadays to “grade” hair. And not everyone with kinky hair is eager to
add dollops of whatever natural-hair product is out there promising
curls and more manageable hair. Don’t act like you didn’t run out to buy
some Mixed Chicks hair products hoping for some Tracee Ellis Ross
curls.

There were also comments about how Beyoncé and Jay Z always leave the
house looking like a million bucks, but what about Blue Ivy? So would
people be happy if Beyoncé threw a weave or flatiron through Blue Ivy’s
hair? Or how about a million beads and braids? Then you’ll have the
natural-hair commanders complaining about how much damage that can cause
to her hairline.

Basically, if you’re Beyoncé and Jay Z, you’re damned if you do Blue Ivy’s hair, and you’re damned if you don’t.

Blue Ivy’s hair is perfectly fine. I doubt it’s dirty. I doubt it’s
infested with lice. I doubt it’s rarely uncombed, but at that particular
moment, you caught a family returning from a vacation, and the least of
their worries was hair. Maybe it’s not Blue Ivy’s hair that’s the issue
but something internal that a lot of black people have. In the words of
Marcus Garvey, “Take the kinks out of your mind instead of your hair.”
In layman’s terms, some of y’all black people are tripping. And guess
what? I doubt Beyoncé, Jay Z or Blue Ivy gives two rattail combs about
what any of y’all think.

Yesha Callahan is editor of The Grapevine and a staff writer at The Root. Follow her on Twitter.

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